Drabbles in a half shell
by 630leosa
Summary: A drabble collection about everyone's favorite Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles
1. Turtle traits

Clearly the dark green turtle had an attitude problem. He always seemed to be in a fight with his brother, for some reason.

He was easily the biggest of the four, and clearly the strongest, but not the leader. The forest-green turtle was the leader. The others always looked to him before acting, almost as if they were waiting to see whether he'd object.

The leader would be minding his own business and then somehow find himself in a vicious fight with the bigger turtle, seemingly for no reason at all.

Maybe it was because they both acted like the alpha male? But they were family, they'd grown up together... Could the two turtles really be that territorial?

The other two seemed perfectly content with their little family, only vaguely acknowledging the fights since they were so used to it.

The olive-green turtle was hardly ever in a fight, and seemed happy just to watch anything and everything. His shell was the only one that wasn't marked or chipped in some way, instantly giving the impression that he was the best behaved of the group.

The spotted sea-green turtle always seemed to be in some sort of trouble; he was often snapped at by the 'alpha' but rarely got into an actual fight. Currently he was wearing a waterproof bandage where he'd managed to cut himself, probably earning himself a fair-sized scar by the time it fully healed.

The four turtles probably never noticed that Chet was watching them, studying them for months and waiting until he would get the chance to get to know them better.

It had been six months since he'd started keeping an eye on them, but his waiting was finally over; he'd finally saved up enough of his allowance to pay for the four baby turtles.

Twenty minutes later he left the pet store with a glass bowl containing four confused baby turtles, who were wondering why they'd left the tank they'd lived in their whole life.

He had a plaster on one of his fingers from where the bigger turtle had had bit him, and one sleeve of his jacket was soaked where he'd had to right the sea-green turtle who'd fallen on to his back, but he still wore a big grin on his face.

"Don't worry. You're gonna love your new home." The teenager promised, smiling fondly at his new pets. "I…"

His sentence was cut off by the loud screeching of tyres rounding a corner down the street.


	2. Night Watcher

He always wondered how different New York was during the day. Nighttime was the only time that he could slip away from his family long enough to look at it.

He always made sure he was far enough away from their home that the noise of the city didn't alert them to what he was up to: sitting at the top of a maintenance ladder with his sais propping up the manhole cover, watching the city through the gap and wondering if he'd ever get a chance to walk along the streets.

He knew he was bending the rules as much as he could without breaking them, but he couldn't help it. He needed to know what they were missing out on. He hated that they always had to hide underground, especially when the world above seemed to be teeming with excitement.

He couldn't tell his brothers about his nightly habits, and Master Splinter had forbidden any contact with the surface world. The only knowledge they had of the world above them had been learnt from television, which was nothing compared to the life that Raph saw at night.

Leo would never go against their father's word unless he felt he had to, and Donnie would be too worried about the apparent danger - though he was sure they were both curious as to what exactly went on above their heads.

Mikey was the only one that he felt would share his desire to go topside, but his youngest brother had the biggest mouth in the family; he couldn't be trusted to keep it a secret from the others.

That's why Raph spent as much time as he could alone, just watching; hidden under the city where he was told it was safe.

He didn't really believe that he was in any danger above ground, but he didn't want to disobey his father's rules just in case something happened. After all, his family couldn't help him if they didn't know where he was.

The streets were quiet tonight. Raph noticed that certain days were busier than others, and that only made him long to know that world even more... In the sewers, every day was exactly the same; he didn't even bother to keep track of what day it was any more.

It'd been a while since he'd happened to spot a crime from his hiding place beneath the street. At first he'd almost sacrificed the safety of his hiding place to confront the criminal, but stopped himself when he'd seen that the police was already hot on the man's trail.

Since then he'd been confident that New York was safe enough without him having to play the hero - which was why he grinned to himself as he heard a high-pitched scream and saw a young punk run past with an obviously stolen purse. He waited to watch the police catch the thief...

But New York City once again managed to take him by surprise. Instead of the police, it was a young man chasing after the thief. Raph couldn't get a good look at the guy but he did get a good look at the hockey stick he was wielding, and even though he couldn't be sure, it looked like he was wearing a hockey mask as well.

Raph couldn't help chuckling to himself as he watched the strange man disappear around a corner in hot pursuit of the criminal. The city would never cease to amaze him.


	3. Silver Lining

This one is an Expanded version of 'Rain' from my 100 Drabbles challenge. SAINW Universe.

* * *

"What does he look like?"

Mike didn't have to ask who Leo was talking about. He continued staring out of the window at the rain; not knowing how exactly to answer his blind brother.

"It aint easy ta explain. You'd have to see for yourself." Raph grunted, shifting his weight awkwardly as he glanced back towards where Donnie was working.

Leo inhaled sharply at Raph's words but didn't say anything; he knew that Raph didn't mean anything by it.

Mike hummed thoughtfully to himself, absentmindedly tapping his finger against the windowsill. His eyes flickered between his hand and the rain before he sat up and looked back at Donnie.

"Don't bother him."

Mikey ignored Leo. He looked back and forth between his genius brother and the window a couple of times before calling out to Donnie.

"What is it Mikey?" Donnie sighed, not even looking up from his work.

"Just come here a minute."

Curious, Donnie placed his tools down on the desk, wondering what Mikey would want with him.

Raph gave Mike a warning look, his good eye moving between his two younger brothers carefully as he tried to work out what Mikey was about to do.

AS Donnie approached them Mike sprang forward, twisting around to push Donnie out the door and into the pouring rain.

"What the shell did ya do that for?" Raph growled, trying to push Mikey out of the way to let Donnie back inside.

Since Mikey kept blocking his way Raph took off his jacket to throw it over to Donnie who'd started shivering, wrapping his arms around his chest to try and keep warm. Donnie quickly wrapped the jacket around himself, giving Raph a grateful smile, his eyes still clouded with confusion.

Leo stepped in-between Raph and Mike, his mouth opened to say something but the words seemed to die on his lips as his head shot up to face Donnie.

Donnie narrowed his eyes, studying the look on Leo's face. He looked up at the sky, then back to Leo his eyes suddenly wide as if he'd just worked something out.

"Is it working?" Mike asked, stepping to the side so that Leo could step closer to Donnie.

"Yeah." Leo swallowed, his voice soft as if he was afraid that something would change if he spoke to loud.

Leo closed his unseeing eyes slowly, committing the mental image to memory. "He still looks like a teenager."

Raph looked between his brothers in confusion. "Can he actually see him?"

Leo nodded once but didn't say anything.

"I saw it in a movie once" Mikey explained, answering Raph's unsaid question.


	4. What Splinter Doesn't Know

"What Splinter doesn't know, can't hurt us."

It was something that Michelangelo had said many times when he thought that his father couldn't hear him.

Splinter knew that was probably true. However, he knew a lot more about his sons than they gave him credit for.

He knew that they were to go to bed by ten O'clock, which they never failed to do, unless given permission otherwise. But what his sons didn't realise was that he also knew that they would only stay in their rooms an hour or so, until they thought he was asleep.

Splinter knew that his youngest son spent hours of his night drawing, or reading comic books. Sometimes he was brave enough to sneak back into the living room to watch a movie, turning the volume down to the point that he had to use subtitles because he could barely hear the sound.

Michelangelo was the least subtle of his brothers.

Donatello would sneak out of his room to return to his work on the computer, he'd managed to alter the keyboard over time so that there was next to no sound as he furiously typed things that no one else could understand. He kept a full glass of water next to him all night, so that if he was caught he could claim that he'd only came out of his room for a drink; the computer was conveniently close enough to the kitchen to make it believable.

If he felt particularly daring, he would venture up to the garage to work on their vehicles, but that was fairly rare for the young genius.

Leonardo relied on his ninja skills the most, his stealth was almost honed to perfection, and he only ever left his room to slip into the dojo. The hours he was meant to be sleeping were often spent in deep meditation, or silently practicing advanced katas.

Raphael usually stayed in his room after ten O'clock, choosing to stick to their 'bedtime' and get a good night's sleep while his brothers silently moved about the lair.

Surprisingly when Raphael did leave his room, he was the most subtle about his actions, and the most daring. When Raph left his room he didn't stay in their home, he quickly and quietly left the lair and just as quietly snuck back in hours later, arriving in time to have a quick nap before being woken up for breakfast.

Splinter knows all this, but he never says anything, not unless he thinks they are in danger. His students practiced and honed their skills to perfection as they tried to hide their actions from him.

What Splinter didn't know, may not be able to hurt them, but there was very little that he didn't know.


	5. Mikey's Movie Night

**Cute little Drabble inspired by a conversation with my Beta-reader**

* * *

Mikey couldn't believe they were showing it. His favourite movie of all time was on, and they didn't have training or patrol to stop him from watching it.

He quickly made a large bowl of popcorn and grabbed a bottle of soda before settling himself back down on the sofa with a huge grin. The movie wasn't starting for another ten minutes, but he knew he'd get distracted if he wasted time doing something else.

Leo stopped as he made his way across the living area, noticing that his little brother was all set for a movie.

"What movie's coming on?" He asked curiously, making his way to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge.

"Dude. Check it out!" Mikey grinned, pulling up the guide on the tv so that Leo could see for himself.

Leo shook his head with a small sigh. "Really?" He raised an eyebrow at his little brother, seeing the big grin on Mikey's face he shrugged his shoulders, settling down into one of the armchairs. He grabbed one of his war books that he'd left on the table earlier, burying his head in the text, much to Mikey's dismay.

"Fine, more Popcorn to me." Mikey mumbled, seeing that Leo apparently wasn't interested in watching the movie with him.

xXxXxXx

Donnie growled with frustration, slamming the device in his hands down onto his desk. He'd been working on some new upgrades for their shell cells for hours now, and he just couldn't get the new circuits to work with the older ones without short-circuiting or overloading the whole unit.

He took a deep breath, resting his chin on his hand as he scrolled through the blueprints on his laptop, looking for any mistakes he'd made that could be causing the problem.

It took him a few moments before he noticed the loud music that had started in the other room. He turned to the door curiously as the music started to sound familiar, it was the opening score to a movie.

He couldn't help the smile that spread across his face, finally realising what the movie was just before opening the door to his lab to confirm it.

"Is that what I think it is?"

Mikey turned around in his seat briefly so that his brainy brother could see his grin.

Donnie disappeared back into his lab, only to return a few moments later after shutting off his laptop. Curling up next to his orange-banded brother, he knew his smile probably looked as stupid and Mikey's grin, but he couldn't bring himself to care as he grabbed a handful of popcorn.

xXxXxXx

Raph was halfway down the lift from the garage when he heard that Mikey was having one of his movie nights. He couldn't hear what movie is was yet though.

As soon the lift door opened Raph's eyebrows shot up as he realised what his brothers were watching.

"Oh com'n!" Raph grunted, crossing his arms across his chest. "Ya gotta be kidding me!"

"What!" Mikey snapped, turned around to glare at him.

"The little mermaid. Seriously?" Raph shook his head. "How old are you?"

"Shhh!" Donnie hissed, throwing popcorn at Raph before turning back to the movie.

Raph frowned, noticing Donnie for the first time. His eyes instantly shot over to Leo who had a book open in front of him, though he clearly hadn't turned the page in a long time. Leo's head was tilted down towards the book and he had an amused smile on his face. He may have been looking at the book but his eyes were locked onto the tv screen.

"Ya seriously all sitting 'round watching this Disney crap?"

Mikey glared over the back of the sofa with enough anger to make the hot-head think twice about insulting his little brother's favourite film.

"Crap!?" Mikey's eyes widened. "Dude! It's a story of a mutant teenager who desperately wants to be part of the human world!"

"Mmhmm" Donnie agreed, nodded his head from where he sat next to Mikey. "Surely you can understand that, Raph?"

Raph sighed in defeat as he sat down on Mikey's other sign.

"Just shut up an' pass the popcorn."


End file.
